A Dry Day Out: Fitzroy Falls

One reason that makes this view almost better than similar views in the Blue Mountains is that here, looking out from Fitzroy Falls, the perspective is narrower, it feels busier while the Blue Mountains, spectacular though they are, always present a wider, almost endlessly distant view. Here, it's a slightly more enclosed view with that central knob of a mountain occupying the composition mid-view.

When we was last visited this spot, back in late March, there was a barrier over the front gate preventing cars from parking - COVID-19 regulations had struck - and therefore places of interest, such as Fitzroy Falls, were out of bounds almost overnight.

Last week however was different. There were probably 30 cars parked in the [huge] parking area, but no crowd. The weather was clear and crisp and, unlike the day we drove into the Blue Mountains a couple of weeks ago, the views were magnificent!

Here's another view from the Falls walking track - which is only about 200m from the car parking area. Scenes like this tend to be very hard to shoot because of the scene contrast. Although I shot a bracketed series of exposures for the purposes of creating an HDR image, I decided to use just the one frame and process it using my new all-time favourite photo editor, Serif Affinity Photo

Sometimes a simple close-up works better than a big, wide-angle view of a scene. It's not Victoria Falls but it's kinda nice anyway.

What we didn't expect to see on a visit to Fitzroy Falls was a Lyrebird!
When I first saw something fossiking about in the undergrowth I thought it was a Brush Turkey, when I got closer it clearly was a male Lyrebird intent on scratching in the dirt for worms 

Fitzroy Falls - with a meagre amount of water going over the edge
A two-second exposure c/w 10-stop ND filter gives us this smooth water effect - even though the wind has pushed the falls five metres or so to the right over the length of the drop! (A tripod is a necessity)
(Pic by Natalie Hitchens)

Another great view of the male Lyrebird
(Pic by Natalie Hitchens)

Another view of the male Lyrebird
(Pic by Natalie Hitchens)